Sen. Barbara Boxer Is Retiring

Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has served in the Senate for 21 years, announced Thursday she will retire at the end of her term. Her retirement, at the end of her term in 2016, will open a Senate seat in California for the first time since 1992.

In an interview with her grandson Zach Rodham (who is also Hillary Clinton's nephew), Boxer said that while she will be leaving Congress, she will continue her work on Democratic politics. And when it came to 2016, she dropped a very large hint.

"Zach, I am never going to retire. The work is too important. But I will not be running for the Senate in 2016," Boxer said. "I have to make sure the Senate seat stays progressive. That is so critical. And I want to help our Democratic candidate for president make history."

Boxer, who dabbles in poetry, even recited a poem to commemorate her time in the chamber:

The Senate is the place where I've always made my caseFor families for the planet and the human raceMore than 20 years in the job I loveThanks to California and the Lord aboveSo although I won't be working for my Senate spaceAnd I won't be running that next tough raceAs long as there are issues and challenges and strifeI will never retire because that's the meaning of my life.

So while Boxer may be quitting the Senate floor, we can look forward to her guest cameos, whether that means cracking jokes with Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation or confiding in Larry David that she steals other people's dry cleaning.

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